1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to cleaning methods. More particularly, this invention relates to methods for cleaning the rollers of a roller conveyor.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Roller conveyors are used to convey items from one location to another. A typical roller conveyor is comprised of a plurality of rotating cylindrical rollers evenly spaced throughout the roller conveyor and having generally parallel axes of rotation. The rollers of a roller conveyor may be rotatably driven by conventional means to apply a tractive force to an item placed upon the roller conveyor, thereby conveying the item along the roller conveyor in a direction perpendicular to the axes of rotation of the rollers.
Roller conveyors are commonly found in factories and warehouses. In these environments, especially, debris may accumulate and become encrusted upon the cylindrical surfaces of the rollers. When too much debris has accumulated, the rollers may jam together, which may cause the entire roller conveyor to be shut down.
One current method for preventing debris accumulation on the rollers is to manually clean the surface of each individual roller periodically with cloth and cleaning agents. However, because a roller conveyor may comprise thousands of rollers, this method takes a substantial amount of time to implement and requires substantial manpower. Additionally, the roller conveyor will usually be inoperable while the rollers are manually cleaned. The period of inoperability of the roller conveyor during manual cleaning can result in lost revenues from delayed shipments, delayed production and various other delay-associated costs. Thus, a need exists for a method and apparatus for cleaning the rollers of a roller conveyor that is less time consuming, requires less manpower, requires less down time for the roller conveyor and is less expensive than manual cleaning.